Dear Pharmacist Suzy Cohen

DEAR PHARMACIST SUZY COHEN

Dear Pharmacist: I take a vitamin E supplement (400 IU) every day. I just read an article saying that this dosage is harmful. If this is true, I'll stop taking the supplement. -- F.B., Sunrise

Dear F.B.: No, vitamin E does not harm the body. It's needed to sustain life and advance health. Many well-designed trials have proven that vitamin E reduces a person's risk for heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and even the common cold.

The recent Johns Hopkins article was not even a clinical trial. And headlines such as "Research Shows Those Taking E Supplements Died Earlier" only send shockwaves of terror into the fragile hearts of our elderly.

Simply put, a group of researchers sat down and analyzed the results from 19 prior studies on E and drew their own conclusions. Incidentally, funding in part came from Roche, a pharmaceutical giant that happens to sell some excellent cardiac drugs, as well as vitamins.

The study concludes that doses over 400 IU of vitamin E can cause a person to die earlier than those not taking E. This is very misleading.

Remarkably, conclusions were drawn from a select group of studies where participants were extremely ill, dealing with several medical conditions, including serious heart disease. One would assume the lifespan for these people to be shorter. Vitamin E refers to a family of eight different substances called tocopherols and tocotrienols, each having their own subfamilies called alpha, beta, delta and gamma. Each of these types of E has a powerful but different effect on the body. Because alpha tocopherol is thought to have the most biological activity, it is most often used in clinical trials.

How can scientists definitively determine whether vitamin E really affects the body when studies typically use only the alpha portion of the molecule? Remember, E refers to a family of eight compounds. This oversight is massive. Furthermore, some researchers feel the gamma portion may be even more heart-protective than alpha. This too was overlooked. And genetics have an impact on how well a person uses and stores vitamin E. None of this was analyzed.

This information is not intended to treat, cure or diagnose your condition. Suzy Cohen is a registered pharmacist. To contact her, visit www.dearpharmacist.com.